Jennifer Lawrence & Nicholas Hoult break up

Here are brand new photos of Nicholas Hoult, #2 on my Five List, in Italy today promoting Warm Bodies. As I noted last week -- click here for a refresher -- I saw Warm Bodies just before Christmas and really, really liked it. After the screening I messaged Sarah from Cinesnark right after and to discuss whether or not Warm Bodies is what Twilight could have been if it hadn’t taken itself so seriously. Totally. Warm Bodies is ridiculous and it knows, and that makes it even funnier. Also, Nicholas Hoult is irresistible. And SO beautiful. He doesn’t photograph well, so I get it if you’re looking at these shots like, the f-ck Lainey, are you OK?, but in film, and in person, especially, when he’s moving and talking and being earnest but also kind of a punk at the same time...? Well, that’s what Jennifer Lawrence was into. But no, not anymore.

It was confirmed last week that they’re no longer together. Which...I mean...she’s 22, he’s 23. When did we start expecting young people to end up forever? But why now? It’s only coming out now because she’s so visible for awards season. They weren’t spending much time together when she was shooting Catching Fire in the fall, so it’s not super fresh, their split, but it is advantageous for both to start the year off officially and publicly single. That way, he can try to break through without having to be introduced as Jennifer Lawrence’s boyfriend, and Harvey doesn’t have to complain about his star actress being weighed down by a young English dude that nobody knows; he’d rather present her to those old ass Academy voters as the plucky, unspoiled American girl not unlike their college-aged granddaughters who sass them when they come home for family holidays.

So it’s fine, this split. It’s fine. And, you know, it might not be permanent either. Not only because they’ll work together again but also because from what I hear there are still good, strong feelings there. It wasn’t ugly. It wasn’t Selena and Justin.